This is a creative polychrome water jar by Russell Sanchez.   He continues to be one of the true innovators and revivalists in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil built, stone polished, and etched.  This jar is inspired by the long-neck-shaped jar with a low, round shoulder, like those made in the 1920s by Maria Martinez and Tonita Roybal (see second to last photo).  The rim of the jar is carved with 16 raised sections and it is fully polished down the neck and on the underside. The neck of the jar and the remainder of the piece is polychrome.  Interestingly, Russell slips the area with white clay, then etches away the design.  He then adds red or black clay to the etched area to create the coloration.  Many of the sections have three layers of clay used to create the designs! All this is done BEFORE it is fired!  The neck of the jar has a sun and rain pattern.  Below the shoulder are rain and plant designs.  Much of the imagery of his jar is inspired by the work of his great-grandmother Ignacia Sanchez (see last photo).  The bottom of the jar is polished brown, as opposed to the deep red of the rim.  All the clays he is using are the same as those used in San Ildefonso pottery from the 1880s to about 1920.  His deep red slip is a more recent addition to his clay art starting around 2005.  As Russell continues to innovate from historic designs, he says, “Tradition means moving forward and adding to it. You keep moving forward.  If we stayed stagnant we would no longer exist.”  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Russell”.  It is exciting to see how this imagery is not new but Russell’s reinterpretation of it both modernizes and revives.